Well, a year ago I entered into a little head game with myself - still not sure where it going....

It started last year about this time when I bought the contents of a repair machine shop - the same shop that you all have been seeing in the back ground of many photos where I have been modding many things Datsun. That shop is easy to spot - my own workshop is rented, and it's concrete grey - the first 30' of a nice concrete tilt up built 7 years ago. This is where I do my fab work for the most part. I have a little lathe and a mill which I occasionally use. But for the most parts this is a mechanical and fabrication workshop. I rent this space and it’s about 40 minute’s away from home.I have a second storage space some 60 minutes in a different direction away from home.The sporadic bright background photos where most of the machining and facy welding work was done at my old job’s workshop. Sadly that shop came to an end last year. I build that shop, and most of the fixtures in it over the past 13 years. When everyone got laid off, and I was given the task to shut it down – it hurt a lot. I literally threw away tons of steel – jigs, fixtures, tanks, benches and dollies ect – all the various devices that have been developed to make our lives easier while servicing these huge turbochargers that I work on. I had three weeks to empty the building. Anyone close buy with space and a truck benefitted. Some of the machines became mine, bought from a good friend who bought them from my company. II wasn’t allowed to buy them directly – that’s a conflict of interest. So he had to bid, I had to hope he got them, then I had to buy them from him. It’s all legal that way, as I did not benefit directly.But what I do know is exactly how these machines were treated – as I am the only guy (for the most part) who ever used them. Nearly full disclosure. Now, they have all been preserved liberally with a case of preservative and stored in a 40’ sea container I had to buy – and have been sitting in a shipyard waiting for a new place to call home. I am paying for this storage as well.

Now it all has to come under one roof – this is nuts! So I’m finally pulling the cord here.

Last year I preoccupied myself looking at commercial real estate and adjusting various business plans to make this all work as the Machine Shop Man Cave Datsun Center of Excellence. No matter how I cut it – with a family in tow it just wasn’t going to work (I won’t go into details, but suffice to say the variables are many!). In October it became clear to me that this light commercial plan just couldn’t work, I had exhausted all avenues available to me. And I was getting exhausted and impatient. That preservative is only good for so long in a unheated and uninsulated sea can.

Then the decision was made to purchase a regular detached home just like everyone else does. Only, this home will have a shop of good proportions built out back, alongside… somewhere on the property.The wife is not a country side kind of girl. Moving out of the big smoke and into a much less cosmopolitan suburb has taken some time for her to warm up to. However seeing what we can afford further out of the city compared to what we can get in the city – well let’s say once I got away from commercial space after 8 months an into residential – she’s been a whole lot more willing about the idea of moving. Maybe things happen for a reason.The kids – well young kids are malleable – better now than later, currently at ages 5 and 8.Power as I have learned can be dealt with, so can shop design within civic rules. I won’t have a 60X110’ building with a 24’ ceiling, but I’ll have enough space to be happy – I hope.

I move into the 4th month of looking. Over Christmas we started getting really active. As the wife in now prepared to move, I get more input and out desires have changed considerably. So have the types of houses we have been considering.

So one day soon, I may be posting about my new home. However I will quickly turn that into my quest for “The Garage”. I have however started a parallel thread on The Garage Journal under my same handle.

I’ll update major events and information here that are of good interest as they come up. Pics of progress once it all strts and the like. For now, I am just tying to brainstorm and prepare as best I can.

BTW - you Maple Ridge guys will have me back once more. I graduated with my last 3 years of High School there, and pronmply left town to live in other areas of Western Canada and a year in Australia.

So the major head game has been trying to see where this might go – it’s been an ever changing road. It’s been fun. I haven’t used so much of my noodle in a long time simply trying to forsee all the variable. Since I have picked a municipality, the Planning and Engineering Department of this city is already starting to recognize me when I walk through the doors – and there are a lot of people there. I’ve learned about codes, property uses, and land development plans – and am getting to know the tricks of home flippers and the real-estate market in general. It’s been quite the ride that I have until now kept off the forum. And a good reason why for the past year I haven’t really been posting any ground breaking projects, and little progress on the Greg Terry car.

I’d love the farm idea personally – but the wife isn’t into it. I love my wife, and a happy wife means a happy life. However my work around ideas will suit me as well, so into the burbs I’m a goin….As noted by Kiwi, Electrically I am edumicating myself.. quickly!As a young guy I had a coworker in the shipyard in Victoria who literally collected machinery on his “farm” (Ed if your out there – Hi). He told me how to build a rotary phase converter when I was still a teenager so I’ve always known I could do it this way. But what I have been researching over the years is the specifics.I’m no electrician – so you guys out there that are, please do correct me where I’m out of line From what I understand, and simply put, your driver motor needs to be 50% larger than your larger than your largest driven motor. Eg: to build a 5 hp rotary phase converter, you need a 7.5 motor to generate that third leg – and a little starter motor to get it going. But it’s rough and raw power, and it’s hard on machinery as that leg will only be 80% as strong as the other two legs. Also, when the power is not being used, that third leg is building up voltage, and without some extra circuitry, it’s not only hard on your motors, it’ll eventually fry my transformers and switchgear in my lathes and mill. Rotary converters are also loud – audibly and electrically – very loud at higher amperage rates.The other problem with rotary converters is that they also send spikes back into your hydro line. For small machines this is likely not an issue. However if you look at my larger machines, I have been told by my sister (who’s a lines man and a meter technician) that people have actually fried the transformers on the hydro poles with this type of set up. If Hydro proves you did this damage, man you are in deep water! What rotary converters have is that they are cheap to build which is why they are used. But there are a lot of “buts” above to consider on this option. I’ll include a link below to show a simple version.

There is also the VFD (variable frequency drive) option which is a great option, however an individual VFD drive needs to be mounted to each and every motor on each machine separately – in the case of my lathe; that’s one for the main motor, one for the axial rapid travers, one for the saddle rapid travers and one for the coolant pump (or toss it and find a 110V which is likely cheaper and retro fit the pump). Moving onto the mill, one VFD for the horizontal motor, one for the vertical mill motor and one each for the rapid travers and the table feed… if I move down my machines, the VFD suddenly isn’t a cost effective option.

You can do a capacitor delay to generate 3 phase as well on smaller equipment – even home made – 6 part link below is worth a watch just for interest sake.

So the last option for me (that I’m aware of) is a digital converter. Essentially it’s a big black box – two wires in, three wires out (yes and you electrical types will remind me there is an earth as well on both sides…). With this option you buy one magic box matched to double the maximum load (amps) you’ll ever require at any time. Take my bigger lathe for instance – 440V pulls 18 Amps, at 220V it pulls 36 Amps. I would need a 64 Amp digital converter. That sorts the power from single to 3 phase. Now you need to basically double that max load in single phase to make three phase through a Digital Phase converter; using the example above I would need a 64 amp digital converter requiring 128 amps single phase 220V into this circuit to run this machinery.

The nice thing I read about digital converters is that they provide excellent power instantly – it’s stable, no spikes and perfectly consistent power and its silent.

So that’s about as much I know to date – I feel that a 200 amp 220V single phase service will work for me… in the city… happy wife...

Buy one of these and be done, IMHO it's the only way to do it right. Yes, it is pricey, but it delivers very clean power. Think of it as a 3 phase power supply, you hook this up to a 3 phase panel, then run all of your 3 ph equipment off of the panel. And no, you don't have to double the amps with Phase Perfect. The newer models are white in color. I used this one in my shop for over 5 years on my CNC mill which requires very clean power. Worked perfect !

Hey never a bad move to own some green (as in land) in the Fraser valley, it's not like they are making more of it...

I've never had to deal with the phase converters but I do have a close buddy who sets up all manner of wood shop equipment who has dealt with them over the years, please don't hesitate to call with any questions eh.

Thanks Jason, my source of information t date has been Beaver Electric in Burnaby, a guy named Dave. He's been super helpful.However from the time I move in to the time I am buying this electrical equipment, it'll be no less than 9-12 months I'm thinking. Unless some unknown rich uncle kicks the bucket and leaves some small fortune to me One could only hope.

Bought a simple G gauge kit in November. And LGB 2-4-0 with tender, tanker and caboose. A few weeks later a couple box cars showed up on CL which I snagged. Then I found a bit more track and a couple more switches. Just after Christmas I bought two more hopper cars and then stood back and realized I had over a grand into this little piece and realized I had to stop. House first, toys later.

But for now my son is absolutely thrilled with the stuff, and my daughter is in there to. So all is good.

But live steam at the 7" or so gauge would be awesome. Or even an early diesel electric like an F5, F7 or even a replica EMD Aerotrain in on my list....

Well - phase 1 just got completed this afternoon. Financing was finalized this afternoon. At 43, I'm a first time home owner!

Here's the MSL listing and the photos of the place.

The wife is super happy, the place needs nothing up front which means I can go straight to work on the back yard and the new shed.

We got into a bidding war on the house. It listed last Thursday, with the entire upped floor still under tarps as it was being painted and the roof spackle being done (personally I hate the stuff, but it's there now).

However on paper with a lot size like this, right in the city, close to schools and close to the commuter train for the wife to get into Vancouver - if the place was half livable it had a chance in my books. So when we showed up, the place was more than livable and the wife loved it. Within a day there were 4 offers. This past Monday, all offering parties were called to the selling realtors office, all sat down and presented offers and then the counter offers and negotiations began. We did what we felt were right by us and in the end our bid won. We came out paying $491k which I still feel happy about - based on the lot size alone and that the house can be moved into as is. I don’t have my garage, but I will build my Datsun Center of Excellence as I choose 

Move in date is the 15th of March.

Byron

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MLS Ad 2.jpg (222.9 KiB) Viewed 2690 times

Google Street View from east side 2.jpg (196.9 KiB) Viewed 2700 times

Google Street View from west side 2.jpg (288.56 KiB) Viewed 2700 times

An Arial view from the city web site, and a basic drawing of what i envision now before getting estimates....

The 12X20 shed (blue arrow) will temporarily move as its helpful now for keeping bikes and the lawn mower in until the garage is in place. It will move as indicated by the blue arrows (detailed in a post yet to come).

The yellow arrow indicates the driveway which will stay for the most part within 12 feet of the property line in the end.

It is a skinny access to the back yard past the house - 9' from the house to the property line. The construction vehicles will have an issue which I'll really have to watch. And I'll first need to modify the gate into the back yard to accommodate said vehicles.

The garage will have enough room along the fence line to park cars or a trailer down. I have allowed 15'. I need to build 5' off the property lines as indicated by the red dotted lines. The services will come along the fence line on the top of the photo from the house to the garage. Right now I see power, gas, water, storm drain and data. The local rules indicate power and gas need to be at least 1' apart in that ditch, and the all need to be 2' down min. the rest have no limits between each other but you'd likely want to keep the data conduit 1' from the power as well.

My preliminary thoughts for now on the layout. I’m completely pumped and can barely contain myself.